


Southern Tribes Don't Lift Up Strife

by ofiutt



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Firelord Zuko (Avatar), Fluff and Mush, Kissing, M/M, Protective Gaang (Avatar), Romance, bodyguard Jet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-10
Updated: 2020-10-10
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:28:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26928127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ofiutt/pseuds/ofiutt
Summary: Jet solaces Zuko during a meeting.
Relationships: Jet/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 70





	Southern Tribes Don't Lift Up Strife

**Author's Note:**

> I normally don't add notes to any of my fics, but I'd like to recommend two of some of the best fics I've read from the A:TLA fandom! The first one is called 'Crossing' and the other 'Float,' which serves as an alternative ending for the former. The author deleted them years ago for whatever reason but I have encountered a Zip! [Here it is](https://app.box.com/s/0ruf50wedjrkv66aiwlo)

“And due to the lack of cargo occupying the eastern fleet…”

As much as Zuko tried to ignore it, the occasional glaring averted towards his bodyguard evoked indignant rage to swell up in his chest; even if the confused or dirty looks seemed to last about a few seconds.

The conclave involving the Southern Water Tribe and the Fire Nation’s assistance in rebuilding it for compensation of, well, their last encounter had most of the attendees bored out of their minds; and it didn’t help that it had been announced that Hakoda’s children were going to accompany him.

Ever since it had been revealed that Jet was assigned to protect the Fire Lord himself, the rest of the gaang had expressed irrefutable -and understandable- suspicion towards the former insurgent. Aang and Toph’s conjecture had shifted to indifferent acceptance (primarily due to Toph’s unusual tactic to scrutinize anybody and Aang’s inability to hold a grudge) but a remainder of surmise was shared between Sokka and Kataraー _especially_ Katara.

“...albeit the differing time zones had hindered proper…”

Jet seemed to have noted his sachem’s uneasiness and almost indiscernibly - _almost_ \- extended a hand behind Zuko to graze it lightly across the latter’s, who was distantly grateful that he was seated at the front of the narrow, vertical table. Familiar hands firmly yet gently held each other as Jet ignored the beads of sweat that had formed ever since the meeting began. Zuko marginally looked down and smiled, a faint tint of pink visible across his healthy cheek.

_“Your Grace?”_

“Your Grace!” His head perked up to the sight of everyone facing him with a vestige of either annoyance or perturbation, and he cleared his throat. “S-sorry. Continue.” The steward proceeded his rescript followed by a snicker emitted behind Zuko, who bestowed its owner a glare from over his shoulder and Jet’s half-smile spread to a full grin once he noted the edge of his sachem’s mouth twisting slightly upward.

Once the forum had ended the dignitaries gave their respective bows and Zuko, along with Jet as well as Sokka and Katara (who were given permission by their father to accompany the pair towards their departure) had exchanged remarks involving what occurred back at the meeting.

“I don’t understand why you kept declining our dad’s offer to allow you to host the meeting instead,” Sokka remarked, walking alongside Zuko as fluffy snow waned beneath their feet within each step the four of them took. “Fire Navy ships just aren’t made for this sort of terrain.” Despite his back turned to Katara the boy felt a reproachful glare bestowed upon him by his sister. “...Sorry.”

“I don’t think your tribe would be too keen on visiting the nation that had been maltreating them for decades,” Zuko responded. “Besides, the bevy should get all the help they could get in repairing its villages. I didn’t want to append the burden by making you guys go through the trouble of voyaging that far.”

Sokka halted his amble before facing the monarch completely, emphasizing his retort with an indignant, vague motion of his hand. “But you’d have us go through the trouble of repairing our villages when only less than a quarter of your Army is helping out? You weren’t too accommodating towards our tribe when we first met either, Zuko!”

Jet suddenly blocked him before Zuko could reply to the affronted Water Tribe boy, whose face only grimaced further now that another source of potential anger has presented itself to him. “I wouldn’t be too comfortable hurling threats or accusations at the Fire Lord himself,” Jet opined, his serious expression fading as his mouth hefted at one end. “He has more than an Army too, y’know, as much as I’m still getting used to saying that.”

“And of course _you_ would know, Jet!” Sokka snapped. “Maybe _I’m_ not the one too comfortable around the Fire Lord. If anything, you should be angrier about this than I am!” Katara placed a mollifying hand upon her brother’s shoulder. “All right, let’s calm down. We’re all just a little tired and cranky from having to sit through that forum for two hours straight.” Her gaze only skimmed over Sokka and Zuko which just further evinced her grudge towards Jet, and that felt somehow worse than a glare or an exclamatory rebuke.

Sokka grumbled a self-duressed ‘fine’ not long before the four of them had approached the awaiting ship, and Jet was distantly grateful for one of the tribesmen calling after the siblings which elicited shorter farewells between Zuko and the two of them.

Jet and Zuko then walked along the ramp leading to the ship in shared, adept silence yet both of them knew just how _sporadic_ it was. The pair's professional veneer almost always divulged itself behind closed doors; and today was no different. Jet felt ardent hands fisting into his tunic before they pushed him against the metal pavement of the corridor once it had closed behind them, his earlobe nipped between a set of teeth as he placed his own palms upon Zuko’s hips with a smirk.

The small tweak of his ear was quickly followed by a series of chaste kisses pecked along his jawline by the same pair of lips Jet so adored, the overture pleasing him even further knowing that the Fire Lord had to balance himself on his toes to accommodate his height.

“You’ve been _so_ good,” he halfway murmured, dragging his mouth underneath his mandible to continue leaving evidence of his gratitude there. “Have I now?” Jet asked rhetorically, his infamous half-grin somehow audible through every word he spoke. He lifted a hand from Zuko’s hips to undo the top knot of his pitch black hair, dropping the headpiece onto the floor and sliding the ribbon off to run itself through serrated bangs and compressed roots. “Mmm-hm.” 

The bodyguard moaned lowly as Zuko sucked lightly at his Adam’s apple, his right thumb pressing against the latter’s hip in a little spiral motion of encouragement. “You handled everything so well,” Zuko proceeded to laud him. “Sorry about my friends.”

Jet chuckled and tipped his head back with the nudge of graceful fingers. “They still don’t seem too convinced, do they?” His boyfriend gazed up at him through a half-lidded eye that nearly matched the one from the marred side of his face, a coy little smile completing that sensual countenance only available for Jet to admire. “No,” Zuko cooed, biting his lower lip. _Too cute, fuck_.

“I think you deserve a reward,” he suggested, pressing his palm firmly against the twitching groin that tented Jet’s pants between them. The latter’s breath hitched at the contact before looking down at Zuko with an amused, scrutinizing expression. “And what if I say no?”

Zuko peered up at him as his tongue dragged itself across the palm that had just occupied his bodyguard’s nether regions. “Then it won’t make a difference.” Jet groaned as he clenched his fingers in his boyfriend’s hair, whose saliva-slicked hand was now groping him beneath his undergarment. “You know who you belong to. Do as I say.”

Jet was about to buck his hips against Zuko’s, stripped of all his obdurate self-control before the two of them froze in shared confoundment. A general had informed the latter of a blockade near the ship from the other side of the door and soon enough Zuko was back to his usual irritability and recalcitrance, hissing out a barely audible ‘fuck’ between his teeth. He detached himself from Jet and bent down to retrieve the accessories that had been pulled off from his hair, hastily attempting to embed it back to its former state with no success.

“Here, let me.” The former insurgent stepped forward and Zuko allowed him to run his fingers through the long ends of his tresses once more, gathering them up and curling the strands upward the way Zuko had taught him a while back. Jet did his best to bind it as secure as he could before tipping the headpiece neatly between the ribbon and bun, and he could’ve sworn he heard a soft sigh from the recipient. “There.”

Zuko turned around to face him with an obscure yet appreciative grin. “How do I look?” Despite being significantly older than when they had first met back at the ferry, the appended bangs were a youthful trait that nearly made Jet want to fall in love with him all over again whenever he managed to steal a prolonged gaze.

“Terrifying,” he almost whispered, pulling Zuko in by the small of his back to peck a kiss upon his forehead. “Now go scream at their asses.”


End file.
